Intercorp Financial Services Inc. (NYSE:IFS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Michela Casassa : Yes, let me take that. Yuri, I mean actually, under IFRS, these clients, some of them already had a significant increase in their risk profile. So, they were already on Stage 2. Okay. So, the fact that we have rescheduled them on some sense is not impacting now provisions, of course, if they, at the end, pay. So, what we need to see is the behavior of the refinance clients because the portion of them that then may not pay, of course, they will go to Stage 3 and require more provisions. Okay. And I would say that a big portion of them were already on Stage 2. And then we also have the impact of forward-looking and the expert criteria that we have in the consumer portfolio. Specifically, that is, kind of a buffer not to cover some of those clients who might not pay those reschedules.

Now, I mean, the volumes that we have rescheduled during December and January, of course, are bigger compared to what we were doing in the monthly figures of 2022. That are very far away from what we did in COVID. We’re talking different dimensions now because this is kind of more, I mean, localized north, south of the country and some other clients. So, there is an impact, but it shouldn’t be as big if things go back to normal, let’s say.

Yuri Fernandes: Thank you, Michela.

Operator: Our next question comes from Juan Recalde with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Juan Recalde: Hi, good morning and thank you for taking my question. My question is related to the loans to SMEs. So, we saw a very strong growth in terms of SME loans divestments growing more than 100% year-on-year. So, the question there is related to, so what part of this growth is related to Izipay? And the second question related to this would be looking forward, should we expect acceleration? And what, kind of growth should we expect for SME loans in 2023? Thank you.

Luis Felipe Castellanos: Thanks, Juan, for your question. Yes, we’ve grown very nicely in SMEs during the last year. Remember that we are coming from a very, very small market share of around 2.5%, 3%. So plenty of room there. As you recall, we participated very actively in Reactiva for this type of customers. So, we were able to get connections and get to know them better, enhance our models and the whole freedom around participating in Reactiva for SMEs way beyond our natural market share. Those loans have been going through their course, guaranteed by the government, but we’ve been able to capture some customers, clients there. And that’s the result of what you’ve seen last year, and we expect that to continue in the coming months as well.

Although we have been a little bit shy in the last couple of months, given the current situation in Peru. None of them come from Izipay. That’s still a small project that we have there. We have a couple of pilots, but basically not significant yet. In terms of what we would expect for next year is something similar to what we did last year in terms of overall disbursements.

Juan Recalde: That’s helpful. Thank you for the comments.

Luis Felipe Castellanos: Thank you.

Operator: At this time, we will take the webcast questions. I will now turn the call over to InspIR Group.

Rafael Borja: Thank you, operator. We have some questions from the webcast. The first question is coming from Greg Mitchell from ABP Ventures. There are two questions here. Can you please discuss how the efficiencies of less retail branches has led to efficiencies in headcount? And the second question is, can you share how the structure of your organizational chart will evolve as you move towards the 2-tier digital strategy and incorporate new types of employees?

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